Machine for canceling postage and revenue stamps



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOS. S. HUDSON, OF EAST CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 51,053, dated November 21, 1865.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, THOMAS S. HUDSON, of East Cambridge, in the county ot' Middlesex Iand State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Machines for Canceling Revenue or Postage Stamps; and I do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of whicl1 Figure l is a side elevation, and Fig. 2 a vertical and longitudinal section, Fig. 3, a transverse section cfa canceling-machine provided with my invention.

The improvement has particular' reference to the cancelingstamp or machine as described in the specitication ot'Letters Patent No. 48,388, granted to ine on the 20th day of June, A. D. 1865, but may be used to advantage on vaiious other stamps or printing-machines.

In the drawings, A denotes the plunger, which contains the types 'for printing the names of the year and month. It also carries an endless chain,a, ofthirty-one links, on each of which are one or more types for printing the number of the day of the month. This endless chain goes around the perimeters of two polygonal wheels, I) c, the upper of which has a notch, d, niadein it at each angle of its perimeter. A spring-latch, e, fastened to the interior surface of the plunger, passes laterally across the wheel b and'into one ofits notches, and thence through a vertical slot, t', made through the side ofthe plunger. By pressing the latch downward it may be moved out of the notch, so as to permit the wheeland chain to be rotated; but when in either of the notches the latch serves to arrest therevolution of the wheel.

In my patented machine the latch is arranged outside of the plunger and applied to the knob employed for revolving the upper -wheel of the chain. W ith such an arrangement of the latch, in caseof any accidental bending or displacement of the shank of the knob, the latch would be liable not to fix the wheel in its correct position; but when applied directly to the wheel and arranged within the plunger the latch 0r catch will be out of the way ofinjury, and will adjust the wheel with all desirable precision.

The bed for supporting the paper whose stamp is to be canceled is represented at B, it not being so ixed to the stand c as to be immovable with respect to it, as it is in my patented canceling-machine, but being supported by a senii-spherical projection,f, resting in a concave cup or recess, g, made inthe foot h of the stand. ln other words, the bed is raised above the foot and supported on it by a semi-ball joint, the parts o't which are held together by a screw, o, going througha hole, k, in thefoot, and being screwed into the projection f, such hole being so made as to render the bed not only capable ot' being` revolved on the screw, vbut of being rocked or tilted a little in any direction laterally to accommodate the stamp to be canceled to the printing-surface of the types, and thus cause the imprint to be evenly made on the stamp. D is the inking-ribbon, which is applied to the types in the usual man ner.

I claim as my invention- The arrangement of the spring-latch-viz., within and so as to protect from the plunger and operate directly with the chai11-wheelin manner as specified.

THOS. S. HUDSON.

Witnesses R. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr. 

